Chapter 17
Adam
Monday
“Good luck at work today!” Vanessa called to me as we both left the apartment Monday morning.
“Thanks, Vanessa. You too!”
It was her first day on the job at Frank Howell, and it was the day Jon and I were scheduled to meet our client at the county jail. I fumbled with the keys to my car through the fabric of my gloves and waved goodbye to her before unlocking the door. My briefcase was loaded with our case files and anything else I could think of to make this go smoothly.
I let her back out of the space next to me before I started the ignition, watching her pull from the parking lot and out onto the street. Truthfully, I was a little nervous. I had been a clean-cut kid in high school and never got into any trouble, so it was my first time meeting with a real live criminal. I knew it was something I would get used to over time—it kind of went with the job—but everything has to start somewhere.
I started up the car and turned the radio on, backing out of the space and heading to the office. Since it was my first time, Jon had suggested that we carpool from the office. The music played cheerily as I drove through the city, looking out the window at the falling snow outside. Everything looked so peaceful.
When I got to the parking lot outside, Leslie was stepping out of her car. She smiled at me and waved as I pulled into one of the empty spaces. I ran to meet her on the steps, with my briefcase still in hand and shivering from the cold. “Good morning, Les!”
“Good morning, sir. You look positively frozen.”
“I am,” I agreed, watching my breath become visible in the snow.
She unlocked the door and held it open for me as we both bustled past and stepped into the lobby.
“Brrr!”
“You go sit by the heater in your office,” she instructed. “I’ll put on some coffee.”
I smiled and followed her directions as she disappeared into the kitchen, and set my things down on my desk before holding my hands against the heating unit. I couldn’t stop thinking about Vanessa and our incredible night together.
So many things had happened since we’d crossed paths at her parents’ Christmas party, we’d engaged in some of the most incredible sex of my life, and now we were living together. How did that happen? I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was enjoying every second of it and decided to just steer into the skid. Vanessa was smart, beautiful, and an amazing roommate; she wanted the exact same things I did.
The only problem was telling Max.
A few minutes later, Leslie came knocking on my door with two steaming cups of coffee. “Here you go.”
I smiled at her, accepting the kind gesture and sipped on the deep brown brew. She leaned against the desk beside me and sipped on hers as well, and I glanced at her sideways.
“Why are you so nice to me?” I asked her pleasantly. “I feel like you’re always looking out of me.”
Leslie chuckled. “I guess you sort of remind me of my son. He lives in Chicago, so his father and I don’t get to see him very often.”
“I didn’t know you have a son.”
“I have three sons,” she informed me proudly. “Although, the one I’m thinking of is Zach.” Her voice was wistful when she spoke of him and sad.
“It sounds like you love him quite a bit.”
“Of course, I love all my children. Anyways, I guess that’s why I take care of you more than some of the others.”
“Well, I am very honored. I hope you get to see him soon.”
She opened her mouth to say something when Mr. Hansen came walking in from outside and knocked on my open door. He was wearing a crisp, no-nonsense black suit and a winter hat to keep him warm. “Hey there, Adam! You ready?”
I handed my empty cup back to Leslie and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Great, let’s get started. I left the car idling outside.”
While I was grabbing my briefcase, I glanced back at Leslie, feeling guilty for having to cut our conversation short. “Sorry… ”
She waved me off and smiled. “Don’t worry about a thing.”
“Alright, thanks for the coffee.”
Jon quickly ushered me out the door, and we made it to his car in the snowy parking lot. Some of the paralegals and other staff were just arriving as we loaded up and buckled ourselves in. Mr. Hansen and I started talking about the case and how we were going to best represent our client.
Patrick was a good kid, but he had grown up on the rough side of the tracks and didn’t trust any law enforcement officers. He was arrested a couple weeks ago in a sting operation and refused to work with us, even though we had his best interests at heart.
I knew that when it came down to it, a client/attorney relationship had to be built on trust. If I could just convince him that we were on the same team, then maybe he’d be more receptive to our plan. It was a tall order, and I was still uncomfortable with being surrounded by convicted felons. My palms were already getting sweaty as he pulled into the gated parking lot.
“Is everything alright?” Mr. Hansen asked me in concern.
I turned to look at him and smiled, choking down the lump that was rising in my throat. “Yeah, I’m just a little nervous. It’s my first time meeting a client at the prison.”
Jon smiled leading me up the steps toward security. “It takes a few times to get used to,” he admitted. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. I’ll do most of the talking, anyway, and you can write down any questions you might have.”
I nodded, climbing out of the car and walking over to the sidewalk. We had to pass through metal detectors and show our IDs to get past security and were eventually brought to a tiny room adjacent to the courtyard while they went to retrieve him.
Jon sat down at the table with a sigh, and I joined him.
A few moments later, there was the electronic beeping of the lock being opened with a key card and Detective Messinger stepped inside. “Good morning, gentleman. It’s nice to see you didn’t forget about our meeting.”
“Of course.”
The key card beeped again, and two correction officers brought Patrick in from the inmates’ housing. His hair was long and shaggy, and he was wearing the orange jumpsuit issued to all the inmates.
“Hello, Patrick. Why don’t you have a seat?” Mr. Hansen asked him pleasantly.
He looked at the two of us nervously and then coked his head toward the detective. “What’s she doing here?”
Jon sighed, pulling out one of the filed from his briefcase as set it on the table. “Detective Messinger is here to see if we can strike a plea deal. We spoke about this over the weekend.”
“I already told you, I don’t have anything else to say,” Patrick mumbled stubbornly.
“Listen, Pat. You seem like a nice young man who just got mixed up with the wrong group of guys. I’m trying to help you here, but you’ve got to give us something. You know as well as I do that there is an epidemic of drugs in this city, and we need to get them off the street.”
He sat down in the chair across from us and grunted. “What do you want from me?”
“The name of your supplier,” the detective told him.
“No way! I know how this works; you’re gonna put me back on the streets and some thugs will come and kill me. I’d rather take my chances in here.”
“Patrick, you’ve got to work with us,” I told him. “We could get you out of here.”
The shaggy-haired man just looked up sadly and shook his head. “They’ll come after me. I know he’ll send someone.”
Oh my God, he’s scared.
“We can protect you! The cops will place a car outside your house. No one’s is going to hurt you.”
He looked over at Detective Messinger in the corner for confirmation, and she nodded stiffly. His eyes were wide as we thought it over slowly.
“You promise they won’t find me?”
“Absolutely.”
He sighed, scratching the back of his head through the handcuffs. “Alright, his name is Jeff.”
“Jeff?” The detective scoffed. “I’m going to need more than that.”
“Look, that’s all I know, I swear! His name is Jeff, and he lives over on Brentmoor Avenue. There are a couple of guys that stay there with him, and they all make the stuff together.”
“Can you give us a description?” Mr. Hansen urged him gently.
“Ugh, he’s got brown hair. It’s real short, like he’s in the military.”
“You mean a buzz cut?”
“Yeah,” Patrick nodded. “And, he’s got some funky-looking tattoos on his arm. You know, like…all up and it everywhere. It’s got a fish or something—looks Asian.”
Detective Messinger nodded, writing all this down in her notepad and looked up over the rim of her spectacles. “And this is the man who’s been supplying you with drugs?”
“Yeah.”
“All of them or just part of it?”
“Nah, all of them. He’s got weed, heroin, crack cocaine, molly… ”
Jon and I both glanced at one another and nodded. “Alright, Detective, I think our client has been more than cooperative. Is the district attorney willing to offer him a plea deal?”
She smiled while picking up her notebook on the way out the door. “I think that can be arranged. We’ll send an officer to pick up Jeff, and I’ll have him call you.”
Patrick breathed a sigh of relief and buried his head on the metal table.
“Don’t worry about a thing,” I offered him encouragingly. “The detectives are going to take care of it.”
“I hope you’re right,” he muttered. “Because otherwise, one of them thugs is gonna find me up in here, and I’ll be dead.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Jon promised him. “I’ll have them put some extra security around your cell.”
He nodded stiffly and shook our hands before the officers dragged him back into the housing unit. As soon as he left, I breathed a tremendous sigh.
What a rush!
“You did well in there,” Jon complimented me as we were heading out the door. “Our client trusts you, and you were able to negotiate a deal that will likely get a drug dealer off the street and Patrick the help he needs getting clean.”
“Thanks,” I told him dazedly. “What happens next?”
He sighed as we passed on through security and made it to the car outside. “Well, if some officers are able to pick up Jeff, then we offer to represent him, as well. Hopefully, he’ll have some more information on whoever is behind this so we can build a case against them.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s head back to the office and see what else can be accomplished in the meantime, shall we?”
I nodded as we climbed into the car and said, “That sounds good.”
Jon and I drove back to the office and made it back shortly after lunch. I spent the rest of the afternoon filing paperwork and touching base with my other clients.
A text came in from my father around three asking me if I’d join him and Sarah for dinner. When I saw it blink across the screen, I rolled my eyes initially but knew I couldn’t keep avoiding her forever. I texted back, letting him know that I’d come by after six, and I let Vanessa know I’d be out. Before I knew it, the work day was over.
Jon and Leslie both waved goodbye to me on my way out the door, and I found my car covered with a layer of snow. Dad would be excited to have me, and I knew it was the right thing to do, but I was anxious to meeting Sarah for the first time. I drove over to his house and walked up the steps to knock on the wooden door. Dad was waiting just inside and opened it with a smile.
“Son!” he cheered immediately, as he clapped his hand against my shoulder. “Glad you could finally make it. There is someone I’d like you to meet.”
I chuckled softly. He led me through the living room to the kitchen where a lovely middle-aged woman was standing over the bubbling crockpot.
“Sarah, look who’s here!” Dad told her happily.
She glanced up at us over her shoulder and smiled. “Is that Adam?”
I smiled and took a step forward toward the kitchen. “Yes, Ma’am.”
She set down the spoon and spices she was working with and came to give me a hug. “Oh, none of that’s ‘ma’am’ nonsense, this isn’t 1950. You can call me Sarah.”
“Alright, Sarah. Well, it’s very nice to meet you. Dad’s been telling me to come over for quite a while.”
She smiled. “Yes, I know. Your father is very proud of you, you know. He talks about you all the time. We’re just so sad you’ve been so busy!”
Dad looked back and forth between us happily and asked how my work was going. I wasn’t allowed to tell them about my case due to attorney-client privilege, but I let him know that things were going well and I was happy.
“In fact, I took your advice and invited Vanessa to move in with me,” I told him boldly.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise and dabbed his mouth with the corner of a napkin and stared at me in shock. “Really? Well, it’s about time!”
“Who’s Vanessa?” Sarah asked me curiously. “Girlfriend or other?”
I chuckled at her interest and told them, “She’s just a friend. I had a spare room, she needed a place to stay, and the rest is history.”
“And, you’re getting along just fine?”
“Yeah, everything seems to be going well.”
“Then I’m happy for you! I still think you should have dated her in high school,” Dad commented quietly. “She’s always been such a nice girl; you’d like her, Sarah.”
She smiled at him and said, “I’m sure I would.”
They seemed good together, and Dad was happy for a change. It was wonderful seeing him so calm and relaxed after all this time. He needed a partner to keep him balanced. Every now and then I thought it would be nice to have a committed relationship of my own, but I wasn’t any good at things like that. I always let people down.
Besides, I didn’t have time for a stable relationship that’s what made this connection with Vanessa so perfect: no expectations.